La Carmina’s weekend can be summed up – without an ounce of hyperbole – as EXHAUSTING. Shot a cat cafe (the resident Scottish Fold wasn’t nearly as cute as my Basil Farrow); danced all night at Gothic Bar Heaven; dragged myself to Alamode Market (where you can buy gothloli goods); shot a drag maid cafe; stayed out at Tokyo Decadance until 7am; shot a dog cafe; bought a monkey outfit. The nightlife and market photos will be up in the next few days. As for the rest – well, you’ll have to wait until my Theme Restaurants book is published in March!

I receive a lot of questions about how I style my hair. The truth is that I’m lazy: I never use gels or straightening/curling irons, and I probably don’t wash it as much as I should. I think my hair is the way it is because 1) it’s ridiculously thick; 2) it’s dyed and layered in a patchy way. Whenever I tie it up, it looks punky by default.

I was invited to Gothic Bar Heaven at Shinjuku’s Club Hoop by the very sweet organizer, D’s Valentine (who also manned the bar). My outfit concept was Goth Sailor Moon; the sweater-top is vintage Algonquins from Closet Child ($16). DJ Sisen squeezed one of my hair “meatballs” and giggled; he then popped his pacifier in his mouth and hopped around the room, arms in the air.

I wasn’t too impressed by Psydoll (top left) and Himemanik’s (top right) cyber-electro-rock performances. But I couldn’t stop smiling at Akira Death’s hard pounding cyborg metal performance, especially when he lamented that his name was incorrectly spelled on his sleeve (“DEAHT” isn’t quite the same as “DEATH.”)

In the back room, several booths hawked silver jewelry, Vampire of Rose fake nails, and other Gothic Lolita accessories. For 500 yen, you could have a tarot card reading.

After sets by Boaz, Takuya Angel, and Sisen, DJ Chihiro closed the night with his signature “Fi-AHHHH” song and an Aural Vampire track. “Thank you,” he uttered, sending the children of the night to stumble home in the breaking light.